posted
JaneX, congratulations. Does this automatically mean a scholarship or is there another level of "elimination?"
I can't remember, but I think I was a National Merit Semifinalist. I got a Tootsie-Roll Pop and a piece of Bazooka chewing gum.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Bob, if I remember correctly, about half of the finalists actually receive money. If the college you choose to attend has a program for awarding money to national merit finalists, you are more likely to receive money. There are a few (I think maybe 2,000?) scholarships of about $2500 each (I think....it's been a year or so since I did all this stuff) given out by the National Merit organization itself. So whether or not you get money depends mostly on which school you go to and whether you choose to receive money from the school or from the organization (you can select it on the little card you mail in).
Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
This is so awesome! Double congrats to Jane. I bow to your smarty-ness and just all-around coolness. Posts: 822 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Hey, late congrats for the accomplishment to the two of you. Carleton College's website has a really good FAQ on the whole process that you'll be going through here. It helped me quite a bit. Congrats again. Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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posted
What frustrated me about the whole National Merit Finalist thing is that -- at least, thirteen years ago -- you have to list your college preference on the PSAT your JUNIOR YEAR, and you only get the scholarship if you wind up going to one of the schools you listed back then.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I didn't win one of the Merit Scholarships when was in high school, although I was a finalist. But several colleges offered internal Merit Scholarships to any incoming student who was a finalist.
Of course, the college I went to was one of the few that didn't. And boy, did I hear about that from my mother...
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
It still works like that, you just get plenty of chances to change what the school you named was.
But there is a deadline you have to have that finalized by around the time college admissions letters are coming.
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posted
A lot of the southern schools are really big into offering scholarships for being a National Merit. I went to the U. of Oklahoma because they give any National Merit scholar a free ride, plus a stipend. My freshman year I lived on a floor that was entirely National Merit Scholars. I believe Texas does the same as well as some schools in Florida. Other than that I don't know for sure. U. of Oklahoma is still one of the best deals for the amount of money they throw at you, but it depends on what you want to major in as well.
posted
I was a finalist, and I did get a scholarship. But it was only $500/year, from my father's employer.
Luckily, anyone who is able to qualify as a NM finalist is also probably eligible for some other really good scholarships.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Tom it may have changed since the 7 years ago when I got it (Wow it has been 7 years!) But I don't believe that is the case now. They do give first preference to whereever you put down but it didn't matter for me since the scholarship was mostly sponsored by the school and only slightly subsidized by National Merit.
AJ (Yes, U of U I got like $250 each semester actually from National Merit, and that was pretty much free spending money since the U of OK scholarship was so good.)
And I know I didn't put down U of Ok on my PSATs anywhere. I didn't dream of going there initially!
posted
What frustrated me is that I never actually took the darn test.
Why? Because I didn't know it existed. Why didn't I know it existed? Because, for the vast majority of my schooling, I simply wasn't paying attention. How could miss that, Katie? you may ask.
And I will tell you.
Okay, I have no idea. Seriously, where did you hear about it? I swear, my body was at school every day, but my mind was definitely wandering.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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quote: What frustrated me about the whole National Merit Finalist thing is that -- at least, thirteen years ago -- you have to list your college preference on the PSAT your JUNIOR YEAR, and you only get the scholarship if you wind up going to one of the schools you listed back then.
I'm almost got screwed on this. The school I ended up at wasn't one of my choices. Nobody really mentioned the importance of what school you put down during the PSAT. In fact, nobody ever mentioned the importance of the PSAT itself. If I remember right, the score you got on that had a lot to do with whether you got into the National Merit program. Luckily, I ended up getting internal scholarships.
Banna, UF did have an honors dorm, but I don't remember if they had a floor of all Merit Scholarship winners. I went straight into an apartment. Not the best idea I ever had, since I almost lost those scholarships.
JaneX - Congratulations! It's a big deal, Miss Smartypants. Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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posted
My sophomore Honors English teacher did mention the NMSQT to us, briefly. She probably even called it the PSAT/NMSQT, but I didn't really take notice. Nobody else mentioned it, that I can remember.
Then, when it came time to register for the PSAT, I thought, why should I take a practice SAT test? I won't need to take the SAT, since I (almost certainly) won't be applying to any colleges that require it. So I didn't register.
My dad asked me about it, and I told him my reasoning. He wasn't satisfied, so he asked around. He finally confirmed that the PSAT was in fact the NMSQT, and that if I wanted to have any shot at a National Merit scholarship, I'd better take the test. Luckily, the time to register hadn't quite passed, although I cut it close.
I'm glad I took the test, even though I only got $500/year out of it. My high-school nemesis was the only other Finalist at my school. I would have hated to be shown up by him. It also gave me the chance to take the actual SAT, which was good because I got my revenge on him for beating my ACT score by beating his SAT score.
After so much competition and back-and-forth revenge, we had no choice but to become roommates in college.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
Did anyone else on this board benefit from the fact that the NMSQT score gives the verbal section twice as much weight as the math section? I did not have the highest PSAT score in the school by a bit (several people got perfect math scores), but I smoked them in the NMSQT score because I had the highest verbal score.
I'd suspect a lot of jatraqueros fall into that same category.
posted
I believe this has been the case for both my kids on the PSATs, though I expect that Shlomo's math score will rise quite a bit next year, as he is in precalculus this year.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
Actually, the farther you go away from basic math, unless you're a complete math geek, the more it hurts you. I was in Calculus when I took the PSATs and did way better on verbal than math. Of course the guide I used to practice was a SAT guide, so while I got a perfect verbal score my Writing Skills score was almost 20 points lower. Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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